Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Thursday, April 4th
A daily fantasy sports OG, Notorious has been roaming the DFS streets ever since they were invented. He has racked up multiple live final seats and several six-figure tournament wins in his DFS career, and Noto will mix it up in all different types of contests. On weekends, Taylor Smith will guide you through those NBA streets. So, who better to walk you through the madness of an NBA DFS slate? Core Plays LIVE will zoom out on the slate as a whole, zoom in on the best NBA DFS picks, and constantly update as news breaks. Whether you are diving into the slate 5 hours before it starts or 5 minutes before it starts, you’ve come to the right place.
Happy Thursday! Noto is off for the rest of the week, so you’ve got me for the next couple of days on NBA Core Plays.
This is a busy part of the sports schedule, and the weekend ahead should be a fun one. I took down my first MLB GPP of the young season last night – shoutout to the $1 20-max with the top-heavy payout structure on DraftKings – while the NBA slate was also a profitable one. My time machine didn’t tell me to play a 0.73% owned Malachi Flynn off the bench, but I’ll gladly take any kind of profit in basketball now that we’re in the wackiest part of the season.
Speaking of wacky basketball, we’ve got a 5-gamer on tap for Thursday night, tipping off at 7:30 PM ET. Of course, DraftKings and FanDuel are doing things differently. DK decided to leave the late-night DEN/LAC clash on their main slate, while FD excluded it and is rolling out a 4-gamer. A whopping 7 of the 10 teams in action tonight are on the front half of a back-to-back, while only the Hawks are playing for the second time in as many nights.
Let’s see what’s cooking in those NBA streets tonight.
NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Thursday, April 4th
Slate Overview
- 5-game slate
- 7:30 PM ET – Atlanta Hawks at Dallas Mavericks
- 7:30 PM ET – Sacramento Kings at New York Knicks
- 7:30 PM ET – Philadelphia 76ers at Miami Heat
- 8:00 PM ET – Golden State Warriors at Houston Rockets
- 10:00 PM ET – Denver Nuggets at Los Angeles Clippers
- Teams on the front end of a back-to-back Heat, Kings, Knicks, Mavs, Warriors, Rockets, Clippers
- Teams on the back end of a back-to-back: Hawks
- NBA DFS Injury Report: The Situation Room
- Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays
News Updates
Here is where I’ll provide news updates.
Team Previews
Atlanta Hawks (at DAL): Most of the games on this slate feature low totals, but ATL/DAL leads the pack with a 230 over/under. Atlanta is an 11.5-point road underdog as they continue to play without Trae Young, Saddiq Bey, and Onyeka Okongwu. We’ll see if anybody else pops up on the injury report later. Dejounte Murray (31.3% usage, 1.39 FP/minute) has been terrific since Young went down, while Jalen Johnson (1.24 FP/minute) is fresh off of a monster triple-double in last night’s win over Detroit. Johnson looks terrific on both sites ($6,900 DK, $7,600 FD), assuming he plays tonight, while Murray is still in play even at his elevated salaries. Bogdan Bogdanovic looks a bit priced up around the industry, though I don’t mind Clint Capela or De’Andre Hunter as midrange options. Bruno Fernando is a tough sell for me in the backup center role, though he’d look better if Johnson – who’s been nursing an ankle injury of late – winds up sitting the 2nd half of the back-to-back. At this point, that’s pure speculation.
Dallas Mavericks (vs. ATL): The Mavs are 5th in the West entering tonight’s game against Atlanta, but they’re just a half-game ahead of Phoenix and New Orleans and a full game in front of Sacramento in the standings. Dallas’ 120.75 implied team total is the highest on the slate, and tonight they’ll be down Dereck Lively and Josh Green. Lively’s absence means slightly safer minutes for Daniel Gafford (1.33 FP/minute), who’s been living his best life since the Mavs liberated him from Washington. This is a great buy-low spot for Gafford at $5,700 on DK. I shouldn’t have buried the lede, however, as Luka Doncic (1.77 FP/minute) is the clear headliner. As always, he’s a terrific play in all formats if you can find the $12,500 to roster him. Kyrie Irving, PJ Washington, and Tim Hardaway all rate out as playable values on DraftKings, as well, though Kyrie is more of a leverage play off of Luka in GPPs.
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